How was it like for you?


For my part, I did not take any meds until my third year of College,and looking back on it, it's amazing how I managed! As a political science major, I had tons of reading and papers, and would mostly get Cs with the occasionally B. My love of reading, developed from an early age, helped me and so did my analytical skills. However, I hardly ever got As on my papers because while I'd have good content, I would make too many silly mistakes in grammar and spelling. When I write, I focus all of my energy on the content, that by the time I finished the paper, I'd have no energy to proofread. Also, I noticed that my performance would slide at the end of the semester as I would mentally get tired.

I didnt figure out I had ADD until after I graduated from college. So, like you, I am truly amazed that I survived college (let alone graduated).

I know exactly what you mean about the whole content issue. If you think it is bad in undergraduate, try graduate school! The best thing I found to do was surround myself with proofreaders: Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother, Girlfriend, Wife, friend, tutor, whoever. This really helped. I also will take my paper to the professor of the class before the paper is due and have them read it ahead of time and proof it. So far I have not had any problems and lots of times my professors will give me higher grades because it is obvious that I am giving the assignment a great deal of effort.

mightymouse

how I did in school (college) reading was terrible, I would fall asleep from boredom even in a subject that was interesting to me.
Papers were a nightmare, unless I was hyperfocused by being angry or otherwise emotionally charged. I couldn't organize my thoughts very well. I had a hard time choosing bits from sources to include in my papers. My logic jumped ahead and left out important details\information that helped a reader follow my arguments.
I often would have difficulty in staying focused enuogh to keep my interest... reading books, following lectures.
I also had few friends, in addition to being introverted, I missed social cues, resulting in rejection. One woman, whom I thought I was having a reasonable debate/ arguement must have talked to all the other women in the class... none of them talked to me from that day on.
I was also a french major... imagine not really wanting to put effort into learning whether words were feminine or masculine. I still managed ok.

PS medicine makes my life better

I figured out in my first year that I had ADD. I did excellent in the classes that interested me, basically. I didn't fail anything but had to drop out of two classes that did not interest me in the least--Visual Basic and Accounting, even though the Accounting teacher was one of the best teachers I have ever had. The material just shut my brain down. I actually fell asleep in class multiple times. And I was 29 at the time, and very motivated to succeed...

I got As in Creative Writing, Basic Communications, and Small Business Management, because they are all related to things that interest me.

Ironically, I got an A in "Success in the Classroom", which sure was no reflection of my success in the classes that did not interest me... :D

P.S. dropped out after first year, haven't gone back. I still might but I haven't decided whether there is a program I am confident in doing, knowing my strengths and limitations now.

Didn't know I had ADHD in college, but looking back with what I now know about myself and about my type, my struggles sure make a whole lot more sense. Earned a B in a history class for which I should have earned a solid A...just because I couldn't make myself read the books the prof wanted us to read and therefore couldn't do a good enough BS job extracting material from my "light perusals" and her lectures on the essay exams. Same thing in a lit class, although I think I did actually pull off an A, but it should have been a lot easier than it was.

It was up and down for me, not knowing I had ADD, and not knowing I had Sleep Apnea. I slept in classes, missed classes because I was in bed asleep, did all nighters to prepare for exams, and then fall asleep before the exam, turned in papers late, it was quite a stressful experience. After getting treatment for sleep apnea, and treatment for ADD, college was a virtual breeze....I felt like a genuis that time....what a high...to not have to slave and sweat to just stay awake....and then be able to stay awake long enough to write an entire paper, or study for an exam without staying up all night.

Jon

i did fine in my first three years of college (now that I think back there were ADD tendencies there too) and then I got into pharmacy shool. In a professional school the teachers just talk endlessly and we're supposed to take notes. I should mention that there are no textbooks. Teachers just give out handouts with minimal information. Notes are impossible for an ADD person since we can't focus on one person talking for hours unless the teacher specifically writes the notes down word for word. I also had issues with falling asleep while reading. Not being to get to school on time since i was in bed sleeping. Unfortunetly, I was working 20 hrs a week trying to pay for school since my parents bailed and financial aid screwed me. So needless to say things didn't work out in pharm school. Then I graduated in Economics. I started work and I had the same problems at work. Couldn't get there on time, couldn't read an entire email, couldn't follow instructions, etc. Then finally my friend suggested ADHD as the problem. I couldn't believe it. It turned out that I had all the preconditions and symptoms of ADHD. Even the social ones like being quite in groups, not keeping the best relationship with my peers, etc. Also, I believe my father has ADD. Anyway, I just got diagnosed and start meds. I'm taking Adderall XR but not sure if it's working. I'm trying some behavior modifications as well. At the end of all this I will always regret not being able to become a pharmacist or reaching my true potential. I recently email the dean of my pharmacy school and told her what I had and that her school should have suggestted ADD as a cause of my problems since they are a health professional school and probably had past experience with this matter. I'll let you know if I here from her.


Anyway, I'm trying for law school now but with my horrible pharmacy school grades I doubt I would get accepted. oh btw, I took the lsat prior to realizing I had ADD so my score isn't all that. I think my life could have been so different had someone or myself realized what the problem was. :(

I wasn't diagnosed until I nearly failed out after my senior year and had to take another year.

I compensated pretty much by being smart enough to have passed the classes before I took them. I was a double-major poli-sci/theatre. In my poli sci classes, even if I forgot to do the reading for that particular day, it was almost certain that I'd read twenty other things that were far more in depth. Half my classes I could have taught myself.

As for the theatre part, everyone in that department was ADD to some extent, so it didn't matter. When you're an actor in a show, there are specific people whose job it is to keep you organized at all times. That's why there's a director and a stage manager.

I'm still in it and it's a pain past two semsters i'm 3.0 point studet the past two semsters which is now a c average belive or not by modren standards i got 2.2 overall due to grades yrs ago. I like but hate my degree has tranning for certfactions so i'm taking tests to take one big test which lately i put on hold or precrasting on the ccna.

It1010 is the class i got this summer since rest were cancled it's easy but tendious alot of things i have print off and keep organize to submit an add nightmare for me also the book is a step by step guide on how to do easy things in msOffice tendious.

I was only diagnosed recently and I've already graduated and started a new major. Funny thing though. Untreated with ADD I graduated best GPA in my major, and I was a tutor. Go figure! I am very happy with the way I was able to manage, however I wonder what great things I could have done if treated. I am very good at math and such, and terrible at grammar and such. I have an excellent memory which is why I am able to do so well, I can remember things after hearing them one time, and not have to study (good thing because I can't study). I can only hope I do as well at my new school. But really, now that I'm on meds and feeling "better" I have no idea how I made it through school with out them.

hey there, this is my first post...

I was on meds in high school and didnt really see the difference that made till going to university. I lived on campus and the meds didnt act well with the partying and drinking lifestyle. So against my better judgement I stopped taking them. Four years later i realised i was struggling, hated the degree i was doing and couldnt understand why uni wasnt as easy to me as my friends. I decided to go back on my meds and change degrees. During the fours years of floundering i got heavily involved in the Student body group at my College and worked my way up to President. It was a great way to procrastinate and draw my attention away from boring uni.
Now in my new degree my marks are great, my meds are going ok and things are looking up... I just wish i hadn't been so stupid in first year!

Im still not diagnosed but a lot of this sounds familiar. All of my school was a disaster form elementary to now colloege. Its only getting worse too. I get mentally exhausted after every class, I can't handle more than a couple hours a day, and I am not there anyway. My mind is off in its own world. I find having assignments to be such a major stress that I am completely out of sorts. I get irritalbe, upset, frusterated, and in that state there is no way to concentrate. I find the thought of such assignemtns overwhelming tha tI dont start until I have to, which is the morning of the due date...its bad, I know.
I also pay a lot of attention to content as opposed to grammar, etc and I make many stupid mistakes. Fortunately Im a good writer, it could be worse.
I know I am very smart and I scored above average on my IQ test but my marks are very poor.
School in general for me is a humungous stress and sitting through it is the most painful experience I have right now...

I have never been diagnosed, and never on medication.

I barely graduated from high school, then went to the military. I had a vague notion of being a firefighter when I got out. Then, I decided that I was going to go to college after all. When I got out, I was on a mission. I started at community college, then studied abroad in Japan on a scholarship and then transferred to a four-year college.

All through my undergrad study, I was obsessed with getting A's. I would figure out what I needed to do in order to get that A, then I would do it through pure grit. I got one A minus, the rest A's until I got accepted to a PhD program, after which I allowed myself a B to celebrate...

I Dropped out of my PhD program after two years, a year after my son was born. But no regrets -- I had already proved to myself that I wasn't dumb, which was really the whole aim of it.

I never knew about ADD during this time. I always looked at is as needing the military to get my act together. My uncle is fond of saying that I pulled myself up from my bootstraps. I guess the structure helped me, or just the few years it gave me to stew in my juices. ;)

I am extremely hesitant to recommend the military as a way to get one's act together, but it certainly helped me.

I wasn't diagnosed until I nearly failed out after my senior year and had to take another year.

I compensated pretty much by being smart enough to have passed the classes before I took them. I was a double-major poli-sci/theatre. In my poli sci classes, even if I forgot to do the reading for that particular day, it was almost certain that I'd read twenty other things that were far more in depth. Half my classes I could have taught myself.

As for the theatre part, everyone in that department was ADD to some extent, so it didn't matter. When you're an actor in a show, there are specific people whose job it is to keep you organized at all times. That's why there's a director and a stage manager.

Even though I have yet to graduate, I am the same way in terms of knowing my courses before taking them. I had enough of an understanding in most of my computer science courses where it didn't even matter that much if I came to a test unprepared. In fact, that is how I've survived thus far in school in general was through "preteaching."

with or without meds i going thourgh that delima the meds helped in so many ways at the same time i'm getting around teh same grades with or without them so I'm not sure

I might see the doc in the fall and ask for something other then adderall or just take the generic from of it i have to study twice in my school one for the grades and one for the certs after the class..

I've done 4 years without meds. I'm looking forward to seeing if being aware of what my problems are, in combination with behaviour training and meds, will make a difference. I think it will. I'm just glad to be happy I'm going back.

I had a 3.95 GPA in lab courses and a 2.3 GPA in lecture courses. I would often get A's in classes where the material could be memorized with relatively little thought and D's in classes that required ANY concentration...

I survived by taking courses I found interesting and could therefore pay attention in. Studying was very hard. I never did as well on exams and tests as I felt I should have given an understanding of the material. I also took very technical courses - physics and math and then later, finance - so there was not a lot of reading.
When I did my MBA, I did much better. For one thing, they cram so much stuff at you so fast that EVERYONE is in a panic - and I tend to do better in panic situations than others, & the in-ability to study for hours and hours didn't matter. And there was a lot of group project work, where the student with the particular skills did that job - good organizer did the organizing, etc. so I often didn't have to worry about areas where I am less able. Pity I hadn't been diagnosed at that time - meds would have helped a lot!

I didn't survive college without taking meds, I did horrible my first semester of college (not on meds), and it wasn't due to partying either (I didn't even party at that time in my life).

I survived high school because I never had to study, and most tests were short...so I did great...but everytime I had to sit down and read something or take a long test...I drew pictures (even on my ACT test :rolleyes: )...anyway when I found out that I had ADD, I began taking meds (in college) and everything improved immensely (I even made the Dean's List a few times).
During my senior year, of college, I decided to rebel against Adderall (at times I have my own personal rebellions ;) )...BIG MISTAKE (I was also taking 21 credits hours (over the fulltime load)) when I realized the effects of not taking the meds, I immediately ceased my rebellion. I figured that I had worked so hard for so long, and I was almost done, there was no need to sabotoge myself.